After a very heavy sleep we got moving around 7:30 am and I did a quick email check. I seem to have become used to sitting in some strange corner at some odd angle, not breathing, while the computer attempts to connect to some unsecured internet wifi connection….Bournemouth was no different.

We headed out to find the New Forest. Oddly, it’s neither New nor really a Forest, but we were heading for breakfast with two more Flickr friends.

I have so many pictures since May 29th but I haven’t had time or a good enough connection to load them up….will have to wait until we are home now.

On we go, as we turn out of the hotel we immediately take a wrong turn on the first roundabout…not an auspicious start to the day. But we get sorted out and heading in the right direction and the computer takes us down some odd streets, but we make it out onto the main highway in the direction of the New Forest.

We arrive in Lyndhurst a bit early and start to fret about the fact that I can’t remember if we were supposed to meet Mary and Karen at the cafe (which I can’t remember the name of…) or in the parking lot. We have a bit of time so we grab the laptop and start wandering around looking for an unsecured wifi hotspot so I can check my Flickr mail where I know the answer lies. As we wander along the alley doing a classic “can you hear me now?” move with the laptop Kirk looks back and sees two women in a small blue car waving at us. They have found us! Whew!

The cafe hasn’t yet opened so we take a wander into the New Forest (which isn’t a forest…at least not by Canadian standards….open fields of scrub don’t usually attain the title of “forest” where we come from….did I mention that?). It is very pretty though…. and ponies and cattle wandering about freely add an interesting spin on things. The ponies have the right of way in the New Forest, and we see lines of cars as a pony wanders down the centre of the roadway. Apparently they release pigs in the forest as well at certain times. The pigs eat the acorns that fall from the trees The foals apparently eat them and it makes them ill as they are toxic to them, so the pigs help clean them up. Bit of natural way to keep the system running smoothly!

After breakfast we take a drive up to a pond and there are donkeys! One shaggy little fellow is crying out to have his photo taken but every time I point the camera at him his ears go back and he steps towards me. I know enough about livestock to understand that if I stand still things won’t end well for me…so I keep backing away. The little guy may be small, but I know he probably has strong teeth and I don’t need to arrive home with a donkey bite. We move on to a second pond and visit a swan family, take photos of water lilies and wander around the area. As Mary moves forward through the grass I hear a noise I have a bit of familiarity with and look down. Less than a foot from my foot is a small coiled snake valiantly hissing at me. I let out a surprised cry and step back laughing saying “garter snake”. At least that’s what I thought it was. Mary tells me to watch out, it’s an adder, and although not lethal, my bare toes pose an easy target and a potential visit to the hospital…hmm….don’t need that only hours before a flight. Hard to believe that little thing has such a nasty bite, I didn’t actually realize there was anything that nasty in England. No harm done, four camera geeks try to get a decent shot of him, he slips off into the grass and disappears. And we must take our leave. We say goodbye and offer yet again, should anyone visit Vancouver they must look us up.

As we are heading to Heathrow we make one last silly stop. Wouldn’t you know that there is a small community called Canada. So we did have to go so that we can visit Canada twice in one day! Yes, we are geeks.

We navigate our way to Heathrow, take a wrong turn trying to find the rental dropoff, end up circling around for a bit completely and utterly lost before we see the Car Rental Return sign. YAY! And at the last turn into the National rental lot…Kirk tries to turn immediately right instead of going around the roundabout. He’s done so amazingly well driving us safely around this country…….but let’s make one last attempt at a head on collission before we go… SCREECH!!! That’s me screaming, not car tires.

And now we sit in Heathrow waiting for our plane, enjoying a last pint of Strongbow.

It’s been a long trip, it’s been a wonderful trip. And interestingly enough, while it is usually the sights that make the trip for us, this one turned out to be the people. We met so many wonderful people. While we are tired and happy to go home, we can’t believe that five weeks have flown by so quickly.

Did I mention traffic circles? Sorry, I stand corrected…roundabouts. Today we got up early, found a place for a breakfast bite to eat, and then were picked up by a Flickr friend, Danny. He really showed us a great time. I honestly can’t even recall all the names of the places he took us, it was such a whirlwind tour. I do know we visited Poole Harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world, out to Sandbanks which hosts the fourth most expensive properties in the world (apparently John Lennon started the fad when he bought a house for his Auntie…now the likes of Elton John, Ron Howard and others have homes there), stopped to see the “puffers” (steam train), visited Corfe Castle, Wareham and Milton Abbas (Thanks for correcting me Danny!).

We stopped in Poole Harbour and watched the ferry to France leave…quite an amazing sight to see such a large vessel navigate such a narrow channel. It also seems strange that it only takes two hours by ferry to reach France. I’ve been across the English Channel by ferry many years ago, I know it’s not far…but it seems strange that a run just longer than that to Vancouver Island lands you in another country.

Corfe Castle was amazing and the town below simply stunning. Danny was a gem and gave us his and his wife’s National Trust passes for entry and he stayed back while we took about 30 minutes to poke through the ruins. We felt badly that he didn’t come in with us because I’m sure we could have learned ten times more had he done so. But we appreciated it so very, very much!

Danny took us to a wonderful little village of thatched houses, Milton Abbas. The roofs are so cool. It’s amazing to think that there are still thatchers out there who do this kind of work. The town felt like something out of a story book!

From there it was a whiz back into Poole Harbour to meet the rest of the Flickr bunch. Danny dropped us off outside the pub and went to park the car. It’s easy to find strangers when you have a common hobby…just look for the table of people with piles of camera hardware! One fellow looks kinda like you Rae…so Tony was easy to find. I knew Helena was a blonde, and had a fairly good idea what the others look like (as well as one can from a 1cm square icon).It was so much fun to meet Danny, Tony, Helena, Jen, Donna & Mel! Funny how you can spend time on the internet and end up making friends with strangers halfway around the world. And I never would have believed that I could make friends through a medium that I have always considered to be somewhat impersonal…but what an amazing bunch of people!

We hung out and had a blast and compared camera equipment…what a bunch of geeks! The day was clear, sunny, and hot….and of course, we didn’t think to put sunscreen on. After lunch and a few pints 8 photographic geeks wandered the Quay and then took a ferry ride around the entire harbour. Fantastic! I go four weeks in the Mediterranean without a sunburn and manage to get a bit of a burn in Southern England. Not bad really, I just burned my neck a bit…so I can truly claim to be a redneck!

Eventually everyone had to disperse and we said goodbye. Danny was willing to continue to be at our disposal and taxi us about, but we had imposed enough and didn’t want to cause another divorce so we asked him to drop us off and took our leave.

The sun was dropping and we decided to take another shot at Durdle’s Door so drove back out that way and hoofed it down the steep steps, and I mean STEEP! We kept looking back up thinking….”that’s gonna burn…” But it was worth the effort, although we were unfortunately about 10 minutes too late to get the setting sun on the rock itself.

After we clambered back up the steps and back up the hill we headed for the hotel…we were exhausted. I turned the navigation system back on and worked out the route back. There was this one roundabout that we had encountered on our way into Bournemouth the first time….we thought we had it right and when we took what we thought was the proper exit, it slingshot us back onto the highway going the wrong direction. So as we approached it this time we were ultra careful and plotted our way properly…and we got slingshot back onto the highway going the wrong direction….again….I said I could navigate down through another way again but Kirk was insistent….he was going to beat that darned roundabout! So, we found another roundabout and circled back for another attack. And we managed it this time!

Eventually, after one or two more wrong turns, we fumbled our way back to the hotel and stumbled into bed and fell unconscious.

Crop circles are so yesterday….now traffic circles…those deserve some serious merit! Canada really needs some serious traffic circles. We don’t need big highways in Vancouver, we need to get rid of traffic lights and then need to install traffic circles, and educate everyone properly on how they work. Edmonton has traffic circles…Halifax has one but it just doesn’t work like any other traffic circle in the world so it doesn’t really count because it really is an international oddity. But when you look at the population of Britain, and then you look at the towns and where the people are concentrated…and you hardly ever encounter a stop sign or a traffic light…and the traffic flows …well! We could learn something here!

Anyway, today we had a full day. We hung out at Mary and Derek’s until about 10 am and it was really hard to tear ourselves away. They were such amazingly wonderful hosts and we would have loved to spend more time…but it is a short trip and we really did not want to impose any more than we already did.

Once we got underway we headed towards Dartmouth with a few detours on the way (read wrong turns). We took one turn and ended up in some little town where there was a ferry. We parked and walked down and took a few photos before backtracking. We tried to stick to the coast as much as possible and ended up in Fowey first. What a cool little place! However we actually kind of missed it. We took the ferry across and aimed for Polperro…but took a wrong turn and once we were committed…there was simply no turning back since the road was barely one lane wide (my mirror was often in the bushes!). So we ran it to the end and found ourselves in Polruan. We stopped and took some photos since it looked out and across to Fowey. We turned around and found the right road to Polperro…Kirk muttering the entire way about the fact that I seem to find my way onto the smallest narrowest roads on the planet. …. Eventually we popped out near Polperro and when we saw a wonderful Inn with a waterwheel we turned in…unfortunately we both missed the sign that said no cars…but after a few minutes we figured it out and managed to get turned around and find the parking lot. We walked back down into Polperro and loved it! We stopped for Cornish pasties and stumbled back to the car full of meat, potatoes, and pastry.

Back on the road and aiming for Dartmouth. But we missed the right turnoff there too….and ended up taking a ferry to get back across to visit. But it was worth it. Dartmouth is delightful. It’s warm and an ice cream cools us down as we sit and watch the boats drift by. The we have to take another ferry to get back to where we started.

Then it’s on to Lyme Regis. I can’t actually recall why I waypointed this place…I think it was just to force the navigation software to take us on a route along the coast… but are we ever glad I did! What a gem of a town. We stop and buy fish and chips for dinner and eat it down by the water. It’s been a bit of a carb filled day and we have spent the better part of a month eating salads, so the chips weren’t really necessary and we spend some time causing fights between seagulls. The beach along here is stunning. And we look down towards the massive breakwater behind which are some boats. And the sailboats are sitting upright…with their keels firmly entrenched in the mud. Very cool.

We’d love to stay, but we still have a long way to go and need to push on. We drive out to Portland Bill and visit a lighthouse. WATCH OUT FOR THE CHICKEN! LEFT LANE, LEFT LANE!!!! DON’T HIT THE BUNNY! LEFT, I SAID LEFT! NO THE SECOND LANE OFF THE ROUNDABOUT!!! NO THE OTHER LEFT! Apparently I was looking at the computer when we had an almost close encounter with a massive truck (it was apparently an inch from Kirk’s mirror) …glad I was looking down. I didn’t miss the other stuff though. NO NO NO….NOT THAT LANE!!!!

Then on to the Durdle Door…but the light is falling and the clouds are rolling in. It’s just too late to make the hike down to the Door and we think we might have time tomorrow evening to visit if the Flickr friends get tired of us. If not, well, just another reason to come back.

So on to Bournemouth only to discover that our hotel closes at 9 pm…it’s 10:07. There is a phone number so we find a sympathetic person at another hotel who calls for us and the Hotel manager says he will meet us at the front counter if we come back. We do, he does, and we have our room. It’s fine. It’s a bit of a backpackers place, and this neighbourhood is a bit of a backpackers/watersports place…but it’s fine. it’s clean and has a bathroom. What else do you need…arguably I can even live with a communal bathroom, wouldn’t be the first time…but it’s the clean part that is important to us and this works just fine. Tomorrow we meet a bunch more people and will have a fun day I think!

After breakfast and a shower we were on a mission…to find a boat. Funny, to come halfway around the world and end up driving down an unnamed country road, across a tiny bridge, park and clamber down a small path at the side of a river to find a boat. One of my Flickr friends has a boat and as luck would have it, he was currently moored up not too far from where we were staying. That we found him is a testament to GPS navigation! Lady River Mouse is a 50 foot long, 6’10″ wide narrow boat and we wanted to meet up, say hello, and set foot on one of these vessels as we have thought about chartering one at some point in the future. Lady River Mouse is warm and cosy and welcoming, and so is David! David and his feline friend, Cookie, live on Lady River Mouse and ply the waters of the English canals waking to a new view of the world whenever they need a change. It is a fantastic boat and seems like an idyllic way to live. We can’t stay long though as we need to be down in Cornwall by 2pm to meet several other Flickr-mates at the Eden Project and it’s a long way off.

If we didn’t have a GPS navigation on the Mac…we would NEVER have found our way! Period! We weave our way on different levels of roads and highways, round traffic circles (and mostly manage to stay in the right lane) and zip through the most amazing little towns and villages. We make one stop to take a photo of one of the white horses of Wiltshire carved into the hillside. Amazing that they could make them look proportional when they couldn’t get into the air to look down from above. They aren’t exactly the Nazco sand carvings, but they are still impressive. Wiltshire is crop circle country and we had driven up to Windmill Hill earlier before breakfast, home to regular circle activity we understand.

Each town we drive through makes our heads snap around. The buildings are fantastic, the architecture wonderful and all we want to do is stop and explore and photograph each one…but we have no time. Frustrating! We wish we had more time here!

Eventually we wend our way to the M5 and fly down to past Exeter before we finally see signs to the Eden Project. We are about 15 minutes behind schedule and are looking to find a phone to call Mary, but can’t see one so we just push on and when we drive into the parking lot we see two couples replete with camera gear…they MUST be our friends. We’ve never met in person, only exchanges comments on photos and chatted online in a photo group on Flickr. And it is wonderful to finally meet and speak to them!

Bob and Fran have come 2 hours South to visit the Eden Project. Mary and Derek live closer in a small village called Ponsanooth. We have a wonderful time visiting the most amazing biomes imaginable. The Eden project is a massive botanical conservatory built into the belly of an old china clay pit. One biome contains the tropics while another contains the Mediterranean. Funny to be in England and see some of the same plants we left behind 24 hours ago! The project is like nothing we’ve ever seen and we are SO glad we made the trek down this far. No regrets.

Afterwards we follow Mary and Derek back to their home…and we would have been terribly lost if we had not. They have a fabulous little home at the top of a quiet lane with peaceful atmosphere. We spend the rest of the evening sharing the evening with them and they treat us to a fabulous dinner and even more fabulous conversation until we are all exhausted and need to turn in for the night. They generously offered to put us up for the night and we are ever so grateful.